World News - New Draft for Proposed U.N. Rights Panel Requires Review of Potential Members' Record

Countries seeking a seat on the new U.N. Human Rights Council would have to agree to a review of their own rights records with "gross violations of human rights" taken into account under a new draft circulated Thursday. The latest proposal calls on the U.N. General Assembly to elect a 45-nation body 15 more than called for by the United States but leaves unresolved the question of whether the new council should be elected by a simple majority or a two-thirds vote. Rights groups say only a two-thirds vote will ensure that offending nations will be rejected for membership in the council, which is intended to draw attention to and help prevent human rights abuses around the world. "Without the two-thirds vote, the risk is that the worst abusers will continue to be elected," said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. ... http://abcnews.go.com

A judge attacked former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman for reassuring Manhattan residents soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks that the environment was safe to return to homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood. "No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws," U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts wrote, calling Whitman's actions "conscience-shocking." Whitman spokeswoman Heather Grizzle said Thursday that the former New Jersey governor had no comment. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the government had no comment either. EPA spokeswoman Mary Mears said the EPA was reviewing the lengthy opinion. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/02/health/main1276366.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1276366

A man suspected of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter opened fire on a crowded freeway Thursday, shooting repeatedly at motorists as he fled from police. Authorities said the suspect kidnapped the mother and child Wednesday near Dallas and forced the mother at gunpoint to drive toward Houston. On Thursday, he punched out the back window of the car and cleared a path through traffic by firing at cars in his way. "Bullets were flying everywhere," said witness Kymberly Rooks, whose car was sideswiped by the vehicle carrying the gunman. The car slammed into the back of a pickup truck and ran off the road onto the grassy shoulder. The ex-girlfriend jumped from the vehicle while the suspect and police continued trading gunfire. Police rescued her daughter after the shooting stopped. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1574044&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine-gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison -- where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv."Valley of the Wolves Iraq" -- set to open in Turkey on Friday -- feeds off the increasingly negative feelings many Turks harbor toward their longtime NATO allies: Americans.The movie, which reportedly cost about $10 million (euro 8.3 million), is a work of fiction and does not purport to level allegations against American troops. It is part of a genre of popular culture in Turkey that demonizes the United States....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/02/turkish.movie.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world

President Bush next week will request a $439.3 billion Defense Department budget for 2007, a nearly 5 percent increase over this year, according to senior Pentagon officials and documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.The spending plan would include $84.2 billion for weapons programs, a nearly 8 percent increase, including billions of dollars for fighter jets, Navy ships, helicopters and unmanned aircraft. The total includes a substantial increase in weapons spending for the Army, which will get $16.8 billion in the 2007 budget, compared with $11 billion this year.Senior defense officials provided the totals on condition of anonymity because the defense budget will not be publicly released until Monday. The figures did not include spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the Bush administration said Thursday would total $120 billion for 2006....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11151873/from/RSS/

BUSH had plans to lure Saddam Hussein into war by flying an aircraft over Iraq painted in UN colours in the hope he would shoot it down, a book reveals. Bush told Tony Blair of the extraordinary plan during a meeting in the White House on Jan 31, 2003, 6 weeks before the war started, according to an updated version of Lawless World by Philippe Sands, a human rights lawyer. He says the President made it clear that he had already decided to go to war, despite still pressing for a UN resolution. “The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach,” the book reports Bush telling Blair at the meeting. If the U2 idea was a serious proposal, it would have made sense only if the spy plane was ordered to fly at an altitude within range of Iraqi missiles. Mr Bush’s reference in the recorded conversation to the U2 being escorted by fighter aircraft indicates that that is what he had in mind...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2023128,00.html